


The Life and Lies of Lyanna Stark

by Misfortunatedreams



Category: A Song of Ice and Fire - George R. R. Martin, Game of Thrones (TV)
Genre: Gen, Multi, Other
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-09-11
Updated: 2014-09-11
Packaged: 2018-02-16 23:02:44
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,121
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2287727
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Misfortunatedreams/pseuds/Misfortunatedreams
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"Love can blossom over time just as it can capture you in a single breathe." </p>
<p>Or so Lyanna's mother had always told her and so the young Stark wished to believe. However, when the time had come that she was faced with Robert Baratheon - a lord who had already fathered a child by the age of eighteen - she finds it hard to believe that love is anywhere in their future. Not when the thoughts of Rhaegar were still so deeply embedded into her heart. </p>
<p>The Life and Lies of Lyanna Stark, a story unknown by most and kept secret by few.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> I'm in the process of setting everything up for this story: thinking up plot, character ages, and background so that its accurate. HOWEVER, you have to keep in mind that I'm NOT Ser Martin. I cannot and (probably) will not amount to the level of genius that he has in his lifetime. All I try to do it put into word what I feel happened to bring about Robert's Rebellion and eventually the Seven Years War. 
> 
> I don't claim anything in this story as my own work, it is based loosely off the history of Westeros thought up by G. R. R. Martin. Thank you for your time while waiting and reading this work. Please be sure to comment! :D

Robert was a thick skinned warrior very much like her brother but, though she cared for him, her feelings were in no way love. It was for that reason Lyanna dreaded the impending date that would bind her to a man she felt no more affection for then that of a brother. He was as good as, after all. He and Ned had been raise by the same lord, a Jon Arryn of the Vale. Their friendship was deeply rooted and the cause for the pressure to bind their two houses. Lyanna knew the feelings Robert held for her beneath the rough appearance. Ned had often whispered elaborate tales of his affections for her, how often he spoke of her. He wanted to push her feelings as if one day they would become a matching pair. There was no need for the effort, Lyanna suspected the love Robert sought was something she could not provide.

 

Out of respect for her parents and soon to be husband, Lyanna could not refused the proposal. Marriage was something that all Ladies - all women - in Westeros had to face one day. In many ways she was fortunate to wed into a strong house, one such as Robert Baratheon's. He would love her and give her a comfortable home which she would fill with his children. All Lyanna could ask for would be given to her in this match and the House of Baratheon would be bound to that of the Starks'. All would be right, as it should be.

 

If only Lyanna could see it that way.


	2. RICKARD STARK - News From King's Landing

The day was hot, air heavy and sticky compared to the normal crisp days that graced the North. It was a day that sent all into hiding. Shelter from the sun was a must and it was just what the Lord of Winterfell sought as he moved through the empty courtyard of his keep. It was well know that Rickard Stark disliked the heat, partly because it reminded him of the South and partly because he was not getting any younger. During the rare times that Winterfell was pestered with a hot day the man could feel his age more clearly. The heavy air caught in his throat and the warmth made his body ache. He'd take a chilled winter day to the ones that made him sweat worse then a hog. He couldn't fathom anyone acting normal in such weather.

No matter the though, his duties would not cease to exist. His presence was often in high demand, especially with the coming winter. Last night it had been to solve a problem between two of his farmers. In the morrow it would be to view the supplies and ensure order. Even that day he had been so busy with keeping things in order that he had a rare chance of rest. At that moment though, more then he wanted to rest was his deep need to visit his wife. She had been with child for a few months now and her stomach was starting to show that she had another Stark growing inside. The thought of another of his children running about filled him with pride, but also a sense of tense anticipation. Already he had four, three sons and a daughter, who all ran the servant in circles. He had never heard of children being so busy, so different.

In hast, Rickard brushed through the halls of Winterfell so that he could enter the room his wife occupied. To no surprise she was not alone, a cluster of chattering like-faced children gathered about her. Dressed in a gray gown that made the bulge of her belly more prominent, Lady Stark managed a seconds glance his way before turning her gaze back to the young boy talking in front of her. Benjen was clearly the most like his mother wit his tussled black hair and coal colored eyes. He was the only of his children that had been given his mother's black eye color but in no way did that befall the boy's looks. He was young, but it was already clear he'd one day be a strapping warrior. He was to preoccupied with his story to notice that Rickard had made an entrance until the door hit lightly against the wall.

"Father!" The eleven year old chimed, leaping from his mother's lap so that he could happily bury his face into his father's shirt. "Lyanna pushed me into the pond today."

"Benjen, I told you not to tell." A hissing tone said, his daughter shuffling across the room to smack her brother over the head. "You swore."

The distaste was apparent on her features, gray eyes glaring furiously at the boy who was now cowering behind Rickard. He didn't blame his youngest son for being afraid, even he knew how fierce Lyanna could be when the time called for it. The 'She-wolf' was the most common of her names and one that Lyanna seemed to favor the most. It was rather fitting for the young Stark, her awkwardly thin limbs and mess of hair giving her the look of a barren direwolf struggling to survive. He imagined she would have been easily mistaken for a wilding had she not been known around Winterfell and other parts of the North. Still, Rickard often worried when she went out that she may get into - or cause - trouble.

Picking up the length of fabric she was stitching, Sabella gave her daughter an equally fierce look. "Don't hit your brother." The betrayal that flickered across Lyanna's face made Rickard chuckle. It seemed as if someone had just robbed her or perhaps stabbed her with a fork in the dinner hall.

"He did swear!" She whined, "In front of the Weirwood!"

"Benjen, is this true?" Rickard questioned, pulling the boy from his hiding place. There was a moment that looked as if the boy would speak, but he seemed to have thought better of it as his eyes fixed on the floorboards. "Benjen, is your sister speaking truth?" Slowly the small head nodded. Then, while sobbing, he began muttering things that couldn't be understood. It was clear the boy knew he had done wrong and for that reason Rickard couldn't find the heart to truly scold him. Instead he waited until the boy had calmed enough to speak.

"Will the Weirwood be mad?" He asked softly, playing with a tender part of Rickard's heart. "It will forgive me, right?"

"It's not the tree you should worry about," Lyanna snapped, "It's the Gods. They dont' forgive people for breaking promises."

"Stop scaring him, Lyanna." Brandon cut in firmly, the eldest brother taking charge of his siblings scolding before his parents could. "You're being cruel." Lyanna at once rounded on her brother and, though he was both taller and stronger then her, faced him with a fearless look in her eyes. Rickard pitied the poor man that would one day have to take charge of such an unruly girl. He had often heard that girl's with willful minds calmed down as they aged and got closer to marriage but he doubted Lyanna would be one such girl. He wasn't even sure if she was being willful of pigheaded but either way she seemed to have no fear at all. Thirteen years and she did not faulter when faced with a challenge. It was for this reason that he worried for her.

"It ain't being cruel if it's the truth." She said, "the Gods are going to punish Benjen for not taking them seriously."

"Then they will punish you as well." Brandon's voice was even, he didn't so much as weaver when talking to the seething Lyanna. The difference in their maturity was becoming clearer and clearer, but still Lyanna didn't stop.

"I haven't done anything wrong." Lyanna replied, "Why would they punish me?"

"Because you used their power as a threat," The eldest Stark replied. "It's as bad as breaking a promise." Worry suddenly flickered across Lyanna's face, her eyes drifting off as she thought. It was apparent she was ruffled by her brother's comment, but the look was there for a mere two second before she was back to her usual feisty self.

"That doesn't make sense." She spat, "I'm leaving."

Furious, the girl spun and exited the room with one of the various kennel dogs at her heels. In her wake, the room had become silent except for the sound of Benjen's sniffling and Brandon's soft soothing words. Rickard hadn't realized how wise his son had gotten in the time he had been busy with work. Perhaps the strain of having to look after his siblings had turned him into an adult to quickly. Being no more then sixteen years, he had thought his son would be more preoccupied with jousting and girls but it appeared he was wrong.

"What are you making, mother?" Rickard hadn't even realized Eddard was there until he spoke. The noise drew the attention away from the door that was still wide open from Lyanna's exit and back to the present. He may have been quiet but Eddard was often very good at reading the mood within a room, such as that moment when a new topic had needed to be presented.

"A wedding gown." Rickard's eyebrows weren't the only ones in the room to shoot toward his hairline. No doubt three identical Stark-looks stared at his wife right now. All asking her whom, by the gods, that gown would be for. He hadn't heard about any marriages within Winterfell and as far as he knew she wasn't marrying again. He sure hoped that she wasn't leaving him for another lord. He may not have been around much, but he adored Sabella more then anything. "It's for Lyanna."

"Lyanna?" Brandon and Eddard burst into laughter at the thought, "She'd never agree to such a thing."

"She still wanted to run away and live with the Wildings for a winter." Brandon spoke in a lofty tone, like he knew what he was saying was crazy. Rickard knew that, given the chance, his daughter was perfectly serious about her dreams of living with the Wildings. Everyone in the room knew it as true but simply brushed it off as one of her girlish idiocies.

"She'll have to marry one day." Sabella said, not looking up from her work. "When that day comes she'll need something to wear."

"I can't see Lyanna as a bride." Benjen noted, his face scrunched up as he tried hard to picture his sister married.

"Gods Bless, I dare say you can't." Rickard roared, "She's but thirteen!" He, in no way, wanted to imagine his daughter as a bride yet. Rickard was under no delusion that she wouldn't be married one day, but it was not that day or that year. He would pick out a lord for her that would treat her well. Perhaps a Lannister or Reed, but not any time soon.

Still, the thought did bring him to remember the raven that had arrived earlier that day. "I've news, from King's Landing."

"News of the King?" Brandon perked up, "Is he dead?" Rickard roared with laughter at his son's eagerness for such news. The King was not dead. However it would probably do the seven kingdoms a world of good if he were to somehow meet his demise some time soon. He and many of the other lords agreed that it would be a better day when Rhaegar Targaryen took the throne.

"The Prince is to be married." He offered instead of an answer to his son's question, "To Lady Elia of House Martell."

At last his wife paused in her work, eyes meeting Rickard's for a long moment as their children chattered excitedly. He knew well what she was thinking, he was as well. With this marriage they would produce heirs and solidify Rhaegar's hold on the throne when his father passed. If the Martell girl were to not bear him children though, if she couldn't, it would cause problems. Expecially with Aerys's second son's birth.

"Will we attend the wedding?" Benjen questioned, "I've never been there."

"Not you, young pup." Sabella said, motioning her son over to her. "You're elder siblings will go with your father. We will stay here." Rickard looked over his wife, knowing that she didn't like the idea of sending him or any of their children to Kingslanding alone. It would be better to send a group of them, so as they could look out for each other. He would take his sons, Brandon and Eddard, but the two younger ones would stay with his wife. They would look after Winterfell until he was back.


End file.
